Mark's Blog

It has been a while since I have updated the blog.  Over the weekend I went to the WORS banquet and did not win the Salsa bike.  I was thoroughly disappointed in not winning as I need a new bike.

Friday and Monday I got to go and substitute teach at Suring.  I am starting to form an opinion on how public schools SHOULD be run.  Lets just say that some of the “gang bangers” should be put in their place.  I put that in quotes because Suring has about 2 people that live in the city.  I ask, what kind of gang is there in Suring?

Other than that nothing new at all lately.  Just the same old song and dance, as Aerosmith says.

Later

Well, tonight I am not in the condition to be riding so I manned the camera for practice.  This cold I have is kicking my ass right now.  I got some interesting photos for your viewing pleasure.

Sunday was the final race of the WORS series.  I get there and start taking some photos and talk to Jeff about the last race.  After some picture taking it was off to go to the car and get changed and then get ready for the race.  I get a minimal warm up and then go to the start chute.  I got a call up and managed to get a front row start and then he said the famous, “GOOOO!”

As soon as it was said I managed to get an ok start.  I was to the top of the hill in about 8th spot and managed to get 2 more people before Shawn got pass me by the finish for the sprint.  I get into the single track and try to stay with Shawn but I was feeling really gassed at that point.  I started to take some of the Cliff blocks in an attempt to recover.  I managed to not lose a lot of time through the effort to try and get some legs under me.  Then Chris manages to get around me and ride away because of the lack of go on my part.  So for the rest of the lap I managed to gain some time on some of the competition, I could see them at certain points on the track so I new I wasn’t too far behind them.

Then at the beginning of the second lap I noticed an orange jersey a little bit ahead of me and I thought it was Nate.  I poured on the gas and managed to real him in at the end of the first section of single track.  He let me go without any fuss and then I tried to go harder.  I managed to start getting closer to some of the competition, mainly Chris.  Other than that the rest of the lap was unveventful.

Lap 3 is where the fun began.  I started feeling better at the end of the second lap and then on the third lap I felt good enough to go close to 100%.  I started to hustle in an attempt to get some people, right after the roots of all evil I managed to catch Chris again.  I then marked him until we got to the double track by the equalizer climb.  I said, “On your right” and then all I heard was, “Damn it Mark!”  I took that as a good sign and then went as fast as I could to try and put some distance between the two of us.  From there on out I didn’t get to see anyone until the finish.  I rolled into the finish and felt exhausted.

I wait for the results to be posted to see how I did.  I thought that I was in second or third because I just didn’t feel the best.  Brian this whole season has been faster than me and I thought he got in front of me on the start so I was expecting to be behind him.  Then the results are posted I beat the second place dude by 9 minutes and Brian by 13 minutes.  I can say that is an awesome victory, I wasn’t expecting a performance like that.  It is amazing how losing 30 pounds can make you faster.  The hills aren’t as bad as they used to be.  The problem is keeping the weight off until next spring.

During my ride on Thursday my bike was creaking a lot and it was getting annoying. I thought it was the headset because when I swapped the parts around before the bearings had gotten a little sloppy. I could get it tight enough to not have a lot of slop in it. But when I got done with the lap at the camp I look closely at the “danger area” on the GF, Grand Failure as I like to call it, and it has a barely noticeable crack. I thought it was some dirt on the frame that looked like the crack, so I wiped some spit on the area and the line didn’t disappear. So now I have a record of the length of time it takes to crack a frame, 28 days.

I am pretty sure that this is the bike I am going to be looking at for next year. I will have a GF frame for sale when I get the other one from warranty.  I am hoping that Jeff gets the demo Epic in so I can try it out before the camp closes for the season.

Hopefully everyone likes the course tomorrow.  I was riding there on Monday with Nate and we ran into Jon.  I seen that he was working on the descent to the bridge that was incredibly slippery last year.  I am excited to go and race tomorrow, I hope that I have some fitness left since I haven’t rode a lot in a while.  Good luck to all that race tomorrow.

Later

I won a photo contest for the photos that I took at 24-9. http://www.xxcmag.com/site/eMag.html and the photo is on page 9. I am really excited about the win with the photo. That isn’t the one that I thought was going to win with. The other person that is a winner has an awesome photo also. I have an idea on how he/she went about taking the photo technically. Other than that nothing new. Just excited about Sheboygan this weekend.

I didn’t know what to expect rolling into the parking lot for this race. I got to pre-ride it yesterday and I thought it was going to be a lot of hike-a-bike. The only time I had to walk part of the course was on the 2nd lap at the last kick to the top of the major climb. All I have to say is that my back is sore from the roughness of the course. I thought the course was good, I like the techy part of it because you have to actually be able to ride your bike.

I get a call up to the line at today’s race and go and get my front row start. As soon as the famous, “GOOOO!” was said it was off. I was first up the major climb to the top of the hill. As soon as we crest I got passed by 3 people and I tried to minimize the damage until I can recover from climbing. After a little bit Chris rolls past me and I wanted to stay with him for the first lap to pace myself. After an uneventful first 3/4 of a lap I roll past Warren and I was surprised that I passed him. Chris managed to gap me a little bit on the major climb in the beginning, I managed to close the gap through the switchback descent to the double track. Once to the double track I slowed to take off the arm warmers and then Chris got a gap again. So I had to close the gap and decided to burn some matches to close it. I managed to close to within about 10-15 sec. by the time we get to single-track climb. I managed to climb without dismounting witch proved to be Chris’s demise. I got passed him and then opened the gas a little bit to get a gap. I looked back a few times and seen him not too far behind. After about another mile with the gas opened he couldn’t hang with me and then I decided to keep the gas on high to make sure he wouldn’t catch me. Coming into the 3rd lap I managed to catch Matt and I was surprised to do that also since he just blew me away at the top of the big climb on the first lap. So he said that he was just riding but I could tell that he was marking me through the last lap. Every time I would try to open a gap he would just hold my wheel, then on the climbs I gassed it a little bit more and put my gears to use since he had only 1. The about 3/4 of the way through the last lap I managed to catch and pass Steve. (That is one spot on the goals list checked off.) Then after I passed him I opened the gas to near 100% to keep both him and Matt behind me. Every hill I came to I powered up it, my legs were loading up and it was incredibly painful to try and open a bigger gap. I managed to roll to the finish about 1 minute ahead of Matt, which was formed in the last 1/4 of the last lap. I got 1st in my age group, the first time this year, and 3rd clyde overall.